Consider today’s post a public service announcement. At least, it concerns something I didn’t know, so I’ll assume one or two of you don’t. (Please, someone say you didn’t know.)
Because too much sensory input overwhelms me, when I go to a website with fifty things going on at once, I tend to focus on the main thing and tune out the rest. So, until my novel appeared on Amazon, I ignored the sting of words below the reviews on each book’s page.
The label above this section is: Tags Customers Associate with This Product. These words should be key words descriptive of a book’s genre and subject matter. Amazon uses them as search terms. Were you aware that one of your search choices is: Products Tagged With? I wasn’t. But why does that matter?
For many (most?) of us who write books, we’re responsible for promoting them. We do that, of course, because we want people to read our books. It’s no fun writing books no one reads. So making readers aware that our book is out there is serious business.
On Amazon, the more clicks a book’s tag receives, the higher the book will rank in results when a customer search uses that tag. Obviously, books by famous, top-selling authors won’t go undiscovered if no one tags their books. But high tag counts can definitely help a debut author’s book get noticed.
From now on, especially when you buy a debut, or indie, author’s book at Amazon, remember to click their book’s tags. (And don’t forget to click to see ALL tags.) In fact, you can do that even if you read it as a library book or bought it somewhere else. Consider this a chance to create good Karma. What goes around …
[tweetmeme source=”cassidylewis” only_single=false]
Linda Cassidy Lewis 
Tag you’re it! Mine is Jennifer’s Garden — http://amzn.to/mvkvph women’s fiction, contemporary romance, women’s issues
Thanks!
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Well, Dianne, it appears that as of today, Amazon no longer uses tags for Kindle books. Tags are still visible for paperback, but those might disappear too.
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FYI
That is only the most basic way to use tags. While ranking high in search results is always nice, the more advanced way however is to be very specific and targeted regarding your tags.
Since limiting our categories to 2 when we upload, Amazon also limited how many bestselling lists we could reach. Not cool, since hitting the bestselling lists is one of the best ways to increase your internal organic book sales.
However you can use tags to become a “quasi-category.” Select your tags based on what categories, beyond the two you have chosen, that you would like to appear.
Tag those, then drive to them. Tagging like crazy gobs of minor keywords is not going to help your cause.
Driving to specific tags that are either high search yield or category specific is the way to go 🙂
And on a side note, tags will go down on occasion if Amazon’s servers are overloaded as such was the case with the Lady Gaga release. 🙂
Carolyn McCray
Founder
Indie Book Collective (@indiebookIBC on Twitter)
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Thanks for the tip, Carolyn. But you can’t control what tags others add to the book, right? And there’s no way to delete tags once they’re added.
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